Eight wounded Syrians were hospitalized in northern Lebanon Friday after entering the country through an illegal crossing at the border with Syria, a Lebanese security official told Agence France Presse.

"Eight Syrians with gunshot wounds were evacuated from their country via the unofficial crossing of al-Qusair in the region of Akkar" at Lebanon's northern border with Syria, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Lebanon's highest Sunni Muslim authority on Friday rejected a bill aimed at protecting women against domestic violence and marital rape, saying it would lead to the demise "of the family as in the West."

"Islam is very aware of and concerned with ... resolving problems of poor treatment ... but this should not happen by cloning Western laws that encourage the breakdown of the family and do not suit our society," Dar al-Fatwa said in a statement on its website.

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Friday that "several hundred" French troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan before the end of 2011.

"Between now and the end of the year, early next year, several hundred French soldiers will return to France in full agreement with the decision taken by the American president," Sarkozy told a news conference at the close of a two-day European Union summit.

Europe's leaders Friday backed French plans for a donor conference to help build a Palestinian state and urged resumption of the stalled Middle East peace process, according to a draft declaration seen by Agence France Presse.

The draft says a two-day European Union summit "supports the initiative to call a conference in Paris" to muster economic support to build a Palestinian state "in the framework of a re-launched peace process."

Troubled U.S. starlet Lindsay Lohan was banned Thursday from partying while under home detention, but escaped jail after reportedly testing positive for alcohol.

A judge said Lohan, who is in home custody as part of a plea deal following an alleged jewelry theft, had not violated the terms of her probation but should have known better than to hold a rooftop barbecue.

Campaigners in Japan are asking people to grow sunflowers, said to help decontaminate radioactive soil, in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed March's massive quake and tsunami.

Volunteers are being asked to grow sunflowers this year, then send the seeds to the stricken area where they will be planted next year to help get rid of radioactive contaminants in the plant's fallout zone.